A detailed look at the game of Dungeons & Dragons and all things related

Monday, July 21, 2014

4 Ways To Use Weather in D&D

I live in Atlantic Canada and around these parts we have
a saying: “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.” Essentially it
means that our weather changes so often that you never know what you’re going
to get. Also, our long history with fishing and farming means that many of us
were raised keeping one eye on the weather and knowing what it means. Learning how to
read and predict the weather can be a very valuable asset when your life and
living depends upon being closer to right than wrong.

With this in mind, I’m often struck by how little
emphasis is placed on weather in D&D. I can vaguely recall a weather chart
in a 2nd Edition book, perhaps the DM’s Guide, but have failed to
see it since. But beyond the charts, I wanted to make the point that weather
can play a huge role in setting up many fun, challenging, and exciting moments
for a group, provided that the DM knows how to put it to good use. With that in
mind, what follows are four fun ways a DM can use weather to maximum effect:

1)Weather for Roleplaying

One of the best roleplaying
sessions I ever had was during a hurricane. The DM set it up perfectly that my
group was forced to take shelter from the storm in an abandoned castle. It was
there that we actually found another dozen or so travelers also hiding from the
wind and the rain. We spent the night talking to them, getting to know the land
in which we were traveling better, and asking about a certain individual we
were tracking. It would later be revealed that the primary “bad guy” we were
looking for was one of those travelers and we slept no more than ten feet away
from him all night and didn't know it! As a result, my group and I would spend
the next two weeks hunting him down. Weather can bring people together and it
can also force them apart. Using it to full effect when you want to start a
roleplaying session is an easy and perfectly explainable way to get the
conversation going.

2)Weather for Combat

Honesty, who doesn’t feel that
the epic final battle between a party of adventurers and the final boss at the
end of campaign couldn’t be made better with a lightning storm raging in the
background? Or what about going up against a group of Yeti in a blizzard? How
about trying to take down that giant scorpion in a sandstorm? As a DM, I can
use weather to both enhance the ambiance of a battle and/or make it more
difficult for the PCs. Suddenly the players have to begin factoring for
difficult terrain if the snow is up to their knees, or for wind resistance
during a twister (-2 to all ranged attacks?), or for limited
vision (20 feet) in thick fog. And don’t forget about the extreme weather
events like red-hot ash and cinders raining down from a volcanic eruption or giant hail
stones from a weather front, both of which can cause area of effect damage over a long period of time. All
of this can add an extra dimension to your fight and make even experienced
players sit up and take notice.

3)Weather as a Trap (It’s a trap!)

Far too often DMs (myself
included) limit ourselves when it comes to setting traps for our PCs. My first
reaction is to go to spikes, cleverly hidden crossbows, poison darts, you know,
Indiana Jones type stuff. But standard and classic dungeon traps like,
compacting walls, acid filled pits, and giant slicing axes just don’t cut it
out on the road. So, if you need a trap to throw at your PCs while they are out
wondering around under the open sky, why not consider a weather trap. Any NPC Wizard
of decent level can set one of these up, or perhaps you might bestow a magical
item to your antagonist that could do the trick. Either way, imagine the faces
of your players when they are suddenly hit with an ice storm in the middle of the
jungle or a major downpour in the desert! Also, consider some of the
side-effects that can occur during weather events such as mud-slides, flash
floods, water freezing, animals going nuts, trees falling, lighting strikes
starting fires, etc. There’s lots of great opportunities here to make your PCs work
for their progress.

4)Weather as a Plot Point

What does this mean? Well perhaps the good people of
someandsuch village are suddenly

wondering why their dry and hot summer is
stretching well into the fall months; or maybe some

Lord, Duke, or Count is in
a panic because it’s been nothing but rain in his country for weeks; or

maybe
the merchant caravan that your group works for suddenly finds themselves laid
off because the snow has continued to pile up without end well into the spring.
These and many other situations can be caused by simple magic manipulation of
the weather and they can be great starting points for an adventure. What is
causing these anomalies and what can be done about it? Perhaps it’s as simple
as a Wizard exacting his revenge on the locals for some kind of slight. Or
perhaps
it’s as epic as a Demon Lord who has managed to escape the Nine Hells and is testing
his powers. I’m sure there are dozens of great story lines
one can come up with using something
as simple as the weather for a starting
point.

In retrospect, I think weather has been getting a bad deal
over 3.5 and 4th edition. I’m not sure yet how it will fare in 5th
but I’m glad there were at least some references in 2nd Edition. In
any case, I’m a huge advocate for the DM utilizing everything at their disposal
to make an adventure more exciting, unique, and interesting and I would
certainly consider the weather to be one more tool on my belt to accomplish
that goal.